Utilitarianism Essay

Also known as the “Greatest Happiness Principle”, utilitarianism is a moral theory founded by Jeremy Bentham in the late 18th century (Ahlstrom, 1998; Cave, 2015). Baujard (2010) and Cave (2015) writes that Bentham believes that as man is governed by pleasure and pain, what one ought to do is that which will produce the greatest pleasure

Bentham’s Act Utilitarianism, however fair it may seem, has many issues. Firstly, as it relies simply on consequences, it ignores original intentions. Unlike Kant, who states that intentions are important, even if it does not go as planned, Bentham believes that if the consequences are bad, the act is immoral. However, it can be argued that intentions are just as important as consequences.

Jeremy Bentham was one of the first philosophers to present a fully developed system of utilitarianism. He thought that we, as humans, should evaluate the consequences of our actions, determine whether each action is morally right or wrong, and tally the pleasure and pain that comes as a result of our actions. Is it right for me to donate to charity? Is it right for me to cheat on my government test? These questions we ask ourselves fall under Bentham’s theory known as act-utilitarianism because it focuses on the consequences of every action we perform. Bentham argues that the “greatest happiness of the greatest number of people” (Bentham) is how we should determine right from wrong. He also believed “mankind is under the

Utilitarianism is an ethical theory proposed by Jeremy Bentham and defended by James Mill. The theory says, that all the activities should be directed towards the accomplishment of the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. Utilitarianism is impractical and very unrealistic because, it refuses to focus on the individuals values, morals, and happiness. Utilitarianism endorse risking ones life for the sake of other is not and in fact it rewards such behavior. Utilitarianism mentions that if the outcome of the one persons death saves many lives then therefore it is obligated to do so.

Jeremy Bentham came before John Stuart Mill in writing about the utilitarian approach to ethics and his views were the backbone for Mill’s. He “was an English-born student of law and the leader of a radical movement for social and legal reform based on utilitarian principles (MacKinnon, 31).” Bentham was considered to be an act utilitarian which means he believed “a person performs the acts that benefit the most people, regardless of personal feelings or the societal constraints such as laws.”3 His ideas were for legal reform but, when put to use in normative ethics, we can come to the possible conclusion that for him the decision to save the two ordinary citizens would bring about the greatest pleasure, so the “would be” hero ought to do it. This is considered a quantitative step to reasoning the action. The two lives saved bring about the greatest good and per the utilitarian theory it is thought to benefit society’s happiness, or welfare, much more than letting the two

Utilitarianism is considered a consequentialist ethical theory created by John Stuart Mill and Jerry Bentham. Utilitarianism is defined as an action made is

The theory behind utilitarianism is that one’s actions are right if it promotes happiness or pleasure and wrong if it does not promote happiness or pleasure. The main point to this theory is the principle of utility that states “according to which actions should be chosen that bring about the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people.” (Palmer) Jeremy Bentham gave essentially utilitarianism its name and brought more attention to it than those before him. Bentham came up with a guide named the calculus of felicity that included seven categories for choosing among different possible activities to promote one’s happiness or pleasures. John Stuart Mills, also an utilitarian, added to Bentham’s calculus because he did

Jeremy Bentham decided if things were ethical by doing actions that will result in the greatest happiness, or pleasure, for the greatest number of people or community. Bentham felt that pain and pleasure are what governs how people act and also how people should act. He also would measure pleasure and pain by using a hedonistic calculus system, meaning some actions and circumstances could be measured, such as certainty, extent, and duration. And these factors could be measured by the amount of pain and pleasure that would be caused due to them, the greatest number of people that would be effected and for how long, and so this would then decide what action would be the best ethical decision to choose for the greater good

Utilitarianism is a theory that was founded by Jeremy Bentham and was later revised by John Stuart Mill. This theory is based on producing the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest amount of people and all self-aware beings on Earth. Utilitarianism factors in the amount of bad and good that will be produced by an act. It uses this whether it is during the act or after the act has been done. A utilitarianist believes in one ultimate goal: living a life without pain and a life with many enjoyments. Pain and enjoyments are different to everyone so they are hard to judge sometimes. Mill stated that overall happiness is key and that we as a society should try to maximize quality and quantity of overall happiness.

Bentham’s concern was upon utilitarianism which assumes the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers. He believes that individuals weigh the probabilities of present and future pleasures against those of present and future pain (Postema, 1998).

People were always endeavored to live a life full of happiness and success, but to live a happy life one must define the word ‘happy’ and compare it to different feelings of pleasure. An example of an exquisite philosopher who investigated the meaning of happiness was Jeremy Bentham. He claimed that “more pleasure, or a greater quantity of pleasure than pain, means more happiness”. He also believed that the way of producing pleasure does not matter at all in terms of happiness, because eating ice cream and meeting with friends can bring the same amount of pleasure. In contrast, John Stuart Mill, a philosopher with an extremely interesting childhood thought differently. He thought that people can have higher pleasures and lower pleasures depending on what they value and also, intellectual pleasures that cannot be experienced by inhuman creatures. Mill established the Harm Principle in which he stated that “every adult should be free to live as he or she pleases as long as no one is harmed in the process”. It affects the happiness, which increases when “individuals have greater freedom in how they behaved”. Both Bentham and Mill inspired people to do more of what makes them happy. Bentham said that we all should do things, even as simple as eating ice cream, because it can highly affect our happiness. Moreover, Mill believed that social pressures and moral standards have prevented

However, in his formulation of Utilitarianism Bentham sees pleasure as a homogenous good, varying only in terms of quantity. The pithy formulation of this idea is found in Bentham’s Rationale of Reward where he contends that “Prejudice apart, the game of push-pins is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry” (Bentham, 206). Bentham’s lack of distinction between pleasures leads to the criticisms of his philosophy as hedonistic and fit only for swine. It is in response to these charges that Mill introduces the concept of qualitatively different pleasures.

The utilitarianism theory is described as the happiest and pleasure of the most people not included the personal happiness. Jeremy Bentham believes there were two masters in this world that are pleasure and pain. On utilitarianism, we should reject pain and found a way to make more people happy no matter what the outcome. Utilitarianism is unsound because of events in history, life conflict, and animal cruelty that occurs in our everyday.

Jeremy Bentham is widely regarded as the father of utilitarianism. He was born in 1748 into a family of lawyers and was himself, training to join the profession. During this process however, he became disillusioned by the state British law was in and set out to reform the system into a perfect one based on the ‘Greatest Happiness Principle,’ ‘the idea that pleasurable consequences are what qualify an action as being morally good’. Bentham observed that we are all governed by pain and pleasure; we all

Utilitarianism is a philosophical theory about how we as people should asses the vast area of things that involves choices that people face. Utilitarianism is one of the well-known and most influential moral theories in normative ethics. Like other forms of consequentialist, its main concept is that weather actions are morally right or wrong depending on their consequence. Utilitarian believe that the principle of morality is to enhance life by boosting the amount of great things like bliss, happiness, gladness etc and decreasing misery or agony in the world. The most vital classical Utilitarian are Jeremy Bentham (1748- 1832) and John Stuart Mill (1803-1873). Their theories have had an enormous influence on philosophy of moral theory.